Part One: Area of Philosophy
In this essay you are in a situation when you are visiting another country where you must decide if random people are going to live or die based on the choice of you having to kill one to save the rest and weather it is morally right or wrong, but the country in which you are from this not acceptable behavior, so it becomes a difficult decision for you to make. The area of philosophy that relates most to this situation would be ethics. The field of ethics involves the defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior.
Part Two: Argument Analysis
I look to my philosopher friends for what their philosophy is on the issue of what is morally correct. I first speak with Ruth Benedict she talks about her philosophy of Cultural Relativism which says that different cultures have different moral codes and that each culture determines what is ethically right and wrong that no one culture is better than the other, but that they have developed different culture belief’s over time, and that the culture will provide me the answer of what to do. A question that can and is often use for debate is whether or not capital punishment is considered immoral which kind of the issue is here, curtain countries use it while others
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Stace of Ethical Subjectivism theory is that in a world where so many people think differently from one other on what is right and wrong and what is morally right to one person may not be the same from another person thus it would almost be impossible to figure out the true answer to anything. Lets keep in mind that often times when people commit crimes they are sentenced by people based upon what they think is right and wrong and what is acceptable by society or to be the truth and hand down a punishment which sometimes can determine whether someone is to live or die so in that case does anyone truly live off their own morals or are they always somewhat influenced by the culture they live
In “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”, James Rachels presents six claims that have been made by cultural relativists. One of the six claims that Rachels presents in section 2.2 of the article is that different societies have different moral codes. I believe that Rachels thinks this claim is true. Section 2.1 of the article does a good job at explaining this idea. In this section, Rachels gives several examples of the differences that can be found in moral codes of different people groups throughout time. One of the specific examples he mentions is the different burial rituals of the Greeks and the Callatians. The Greeks perform a ritual that includes burning the dead. The Callatian ritual consists of eating the dead. The Greeks and Callatians, while encountering each other, both stated that the other’s ritual was inhumane. This disagreement, according to Cultural Relativism, is okay and to be expected because the two moral codes come from two drastically different societies. A modern example of this claim is that up until recently in China, small feet were praised and larger feet were frowned upon for women. Radical efforts to prevent women’s feet from growing included foot-binding. This method of prevention caused women to constantly be in pain. Women’s foot size in the United States isn’t emphasized like the way it used to be in China. Therefore, citizens of the United States believe that Chinese foot-binding was a barbaric method, while people in China would think
Cultural relativism, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “Is the thesis that a person’s culture strongly influences her modes of perception and thought” Most cultural relativists add to this definition saying that there is no standard of morality. This means that morality is relative to the particular society that one lives in. Prominent ethicist James Rachels has written against this view in his work titled The Challenge of Cultural Relativism. This paper will be focused on evaluating Rachels’ critique of cultural relativism, and whether it was right for him to endorse
Cultural relativism is the theory where there is no objective truth in morality, and moral truths are determined by different cultures. The primary argument used to justify cultural relativism is the cultural differences argument, which claims different cultures have different moral practices and beliefs, therefore, there is no objective truth in morality (Newton). After reading James Rachels The Challenge of Cultural Relativism, I find his criticisms to be persuasive because the argument made for Cultural Relativism is not sound from a logical point of view. You cannot draw a conclusion about what is factual based on what people believe is factual. Rachels also points out that even though cultures do in fact disagree about moral values,
First, it is important to define ethics and how its components play an extensive role in our society. The term ethics is defined as “Moral principles that govern a person 's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.” (Oxford); ethical decisions are the ones that per se determine whether or not murder is wrong. Likewise, ethics consists of different ramifications and perspectives from many philosophers. Moreover,
Ethical Relativism is, in fact, common goals, morals, values, traditions and ethics that cultures, small groups or societies share. Some different societies condemn individuals do to being involve in abortions, genocide, racism, sexism, torture or suicide (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, S.J & Meyer, pp.45-46, Summer 1992). In certain tribes suicide, it is considered noble if one takes their life. In the
My topic is discussing the ethical issue of the act of capital punishment on prisoners who have committed serious crimes. According to www.amnesty.org there are hidden executions that are taking place across the world. These countries include South and North Korea as well as America. In 2001 there were 3,048 reported cases in 31 countries. 90% of the deaths occurred in four countries. China carried out 2,468 executions. Iran killed 139 people, Saudi Arabia 79 and the United States had 66. Furthermore Japan does in fact have the highest rate of capital punishment. Also in America there is 8 states which use the death penalty as a punishment on prisoners. The state with the highest death rate is Virginia which uses the lethal injection as its preferred method. The reason capital punishment is an ethical issue is the moral decision on whether killing a human is right or wrong. Even though that prisoner has committed serious crimes and has sacrificed the lives of others, it would be morally wrong to kill another person. “We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing”- U.S Catholic Conference. The reason that I chose this particular question was because I was particularly interested on the topic of how prisoners are treated on death row. This is because of the crimes they have committed and I am intrigued on whether they are treated differently.
Ethnocentrism is a tendency to use our own group’s ways of doing things as a yardstick for judging others (Pg. 40, Ch. 2). Cultural Relativism is understanding a culture on its own terms (Pg. 41, Ch.2). The concept I favor is Cultural Relativism because people should be able to understand and recognize a different culture’s background. It is evident that everyone has different ways to go about life/culture. Coming from another country and knowing two different cultures, helps me understand two different perspectives. I am not a type of person who will judge or believe my way of life/culture is the correct one. Everyone is different, live differently, and think differently. Therefore, Cultural Relativism makes sense to appreciate more because it allows a person to understand where different cultures are coming from. When you think about it, cultural relativism is quite hard to
Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are two contrasting terms that are displayed by different people all over the world. Simply put, ethnocentrism is defined as “judging other groups from the perspective of one’s own cultural point of view.” Cultural relativism, on the other hand, is defined as “the view that all beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is relative, depending on the situation, environment, and individual.” Each of these ideas has found its way into the minds of people worldwide. The difficult part is attempting to understand why an individual portrays one or the other. It is a question that anthropologists have been asking themselves for years.
Normative ethical subjectivism is an ethical stance that attempts to specify circumstances under which an action is morally right or wrong using four distinct arguments that try to prove this claim. Normative ethical subjectivism claims that an act is morally right if, and only if, the person judging the action approves of it. Stemming form this view on ethics a normative ethical theory has been made. An ethical theory is a theory of what is right and wrong. This stance on ethics is the opposite of another ethical stance called methethical antirealism. Methethical antirealism is centered on the idea that because there is no right and wrong actions, just personal preferences there is no such thing as morality. It also states that morals are
Cultural relativism is the way society separates right from wrong within a culture. What we describe as “good” and “bad” is based off of our cultural beliefs. Cultural relativism argues that no culture is better than any other and all their beliefs are equally valid. The way that modern society is has made it possible for almost everything to be justified.
Cultural relativism is the way society separates right from wrong within a culture. What we describe as “good” and “bad” is based off of our cultural beliefs. No culture is better than any other and all their beliefs are equally valid. The way that modern society is has made it possible for almost everything to be justified.
Cultural relativism is one of the core concepts of anthropology. Are there any limits to this concept? If so, what are they? Is there a place in anthropology for the idea of universal human rights?
Cultural Ethical Relativism is a theory that is used to explain differences among cultures, and thus their moral codes. According to cultural relativists, different cultures have different moral codes, and there is no objective truth in ethics. They believe there is no independent standard that can be used to judge one’s custom as better than another’s. In his article entitled “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism,” James Rachels offers his argument against the theory of Cultural Relativism by proving the Cultural Differences Argument is unsound and invalid. Further in his article, Rachels reasons against the claims made by cultural relativists, and he argues there are common values shared by all cultures and there exists an independent standard
Different societies have different moral codes. Cultural relativism claims that ethics is relative to individuals, groups, cultures and societies. Relativism resists universal moral normal. The moral code of society determines what is right or wrong in that society. There’s no objective standard that can be used to judge one’s society code against another. Its arrogant to judge others cultures. We should always be tolerant of them. Cultural relativism for many people is a response to the complexity of moral issues and the number of different responses various. Groups our cultures have given to moral issues so for many when we look at just how different cultures have responded two different issues the way different cultures. All this diversity that there seems to be a response where we want to say well, maybe there isn 't some sort of absolute right or wrong maybe morality really is just relative to a different group that different people believe different things. In this paper, I will discuss the aspect of my culture from an outside perspective and discuss another culture from an inside perspective. In sociology, the principle is sometimes practiced to avoid cultural bias in research, as well as to avoid judging another culture by the standards of one 's own culture. For this reason, cultural relativism has been considered an attempt to avoid ethnocentrism. Cultural relativism is related to but often distinguished from moral relativism, the view that morality is relative to
If we look at the world today, there are millions of cultures centered everywhere. With this much cultures in the world, everyone is bound to believe that they’re all different. Even though they are different in some aspects, all of them are similar to each other in some way. So if this is the case, do we as human beings have the right to judge these cultures as ethically wrong or just a cultural difference? Cultural Relativism is the belief that we cannot judge the cultural practices of other societies and that we should let them do as they please. But if we cannot judge them, does it make it right when they threaten the lives of others? Through the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, we begin to have a deeper insight this idea of